Now in their eleventh year, the Sustainable & ESG Investment Awards offer an opportunity to showcase expertise and commitment to investment factors that take into account environmental, social and ethical criteria as well as good corporate behaviour.

Despite the underperformance of fixed income we discuss in this Spotlight guide why the value proposition of the asset class hasn't gone away. In particular we review how the RLAM management team use existing, proven funds to actively manage consistent monthly income streams and adapt the portfolio to changing interest rate and credit market factors.

Within this guide, you will find some surprising survey results from FE, a selection of adviser opinions and some Architas views too. We hope this guide will provide you with some food for thought on this burning issue.

Cofunds set to ink execution-only deal with bank

Cofunds is about to sign an execution-only deal with a bank as the platform looks to gain further traction in the investor space.

The imminent tie-up, which will enable the bank to provide an execution-only platform service to its customers, marks the first deal of its kind for Cofunds in a move it hailed as a "substantial step forward".

Cofunds sales and marketing director Alastair Conway (pictured) said: "We are very excited by this deal - this will be a substantial step forward in terms of working with banks and establishing a dialogue with them."

The deal will see the bank, which Conway described as a "large player in the investor space", offer a Cofunds-powered execution only platform to customers under its own brand name.

"We think this is a big growth area and see volumes growing considerably," he said.

Cofunds is now focusing its energies on three core propositions, he said: the investor space, the wealth space including advisers and private banks and the enterprise space comprising the likes of life companies and stockbrokers.

Conway also revealed Cofunds is due to sign a number of "big strategic" deals in the wealth space between now and Christmas with large-scale distributors.

The platform is also lining up a number of substantial deals in the enterprise space which it will roll out over the next six months.

Elsewhere, Cofunds said its move to ask fund managers to issue a clean 75bps share class - a central plank of its new unbundled pricing structure - is progressing well.

"The majority of fund managers we have spoken to say they are on track to get it done," said Conway.

He added fund managers will likely to come to market with a new share class by the end of April.